Category: Opinion

Something I just realised (shamefully late).

As the world advances and we continually innovate, there are two institutions that remain stubborn – and ironically they are both born from the Industrial Revolution:

1) Schools (and classrooms and teaching methodology).
2) Offices [for information workers].

Both are built around factory line work and designed to keep workers “in line”.

Mother…

Fucking…

Moronic.

I’m re-watching “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and (spoiler) came to the scene with the sunken city.

Having not thought about it before I searched “godzilla king of the monsters is that atlantis”.

And then I realised my mistake.
I started with a presumption rather than a question.

What I should have – and subsequently did – search is “what is the sunken city in godzilla king of the monsters”.

This highlights what I believe most of us to a lot of the time: start with a presumption before we ask a question.
In other words: it’s a leading question, looking for a response that supports a preconceived position.

True discovery comes from asking questions without any presumption.

I’ve recently been thinking about the phrase “death by a thousand cuts” for the cumulative effect of bad UX experiences daily across different tech and services.
I seem to be a major sufferer of this problem, where almost everything I use has a minor or major aggravation,

Case in point, I just literally threw my phone on a table after a walk because

1. it decided to reboot itself when I walked out the front door and wanted to play a podcast;
2. I lost service – yet again – and had to reboot, yet again;
3. it turned onto accessibility mode and I had to Google how to turn it off when I got home.

Or, trying to do emojis in Teams after you’ve used Slack?

1. you can’t do standard emojis;
2. typing “:” starts the joyemoji, which seems half-baked, and has no search, and
3. when you type “:p” automatically used the original Skype emoji tongue out.

What product developers fail to realise is a small design or UX annoyance in their product is not isolated – at least, not for the user. For a user perspective is “one more” issues in a larger set of products they have to deal with. When you come that across a day and a week, that makes for a lot of extra work, effort, unnecessary attention and not to mention aggravation for the person.

There’s someone in my professional community I’ve listened to and respected for many years now.

I’ve consumed almost all their content. I listen to everything they have to say. I’ve engaged with them online. And I’ve even spent money on them.

But lately I’ve noticed a creeping from the shadows: they’re starting to act like a bit of a dick.

I’ve notice a bit of… how do I describe it – I think arrogance and hypocrisy are the words I’m looking for.

It’s nothing overt. More in they way they speak. What was once a consistent positive attitude and refusal to engage (at least publicly) with negative behaviour is now starting to turn. Where, on one topic they tell people “if you don’t like it, just ignore it”, on another topic they’re engaging in a fight they should just ignore.

While it’s not intolerable, it is a turnoff. To the point where every time I’ve wanted to engage with them online over the last few weeks I’ve decided against it, because I’m envisaging a hard-stop negative response from them rather than opportunity for a discussion.

And this is not good for the person, because they are their brand. They earn their living because of who they are – co ntinua leading authority in their domain.

And while they continue to be an authority, if long-time loyal “fans” (see Kevin Kelly) like me start turning away (perhaps even becoming vocal about their disappointment and affecting future listeners) then the authority will dilute their brand by turning away the people who matter most.

Sure, they won’t go out of business. But what was once the equivalent of Nike with a strong ambassador like Michael Jordan will become just another mall shoe store, selling a utility we all need but having none of the passionate following of something special.

I continue to listen to this authority figure. For now. But with me their reputation is already diminished. And if their attitude continues to aggravate me I have no problems tuning them out of my life (has they have themselves advised in the past). Life is too short for aggravation and there’s always someone else I can turn to for advice.

The answer you usually hear in speeches is “follow your passion”.

Bulls**t! The person saying that is almost always already successful and rolling in money thanks to a stroke of good luck.

The real answer is much harder:

Find something you’re good at and spend a few decades working your ass off!

And while you’re doing that you’re going to fail multiple times.
You’re going to work for people you hate. In jobs that suck the life from you.
You’re probably going to get depression.
And a mid-life crisis. Not to mention being hit by a few other crisis’s along the way.

You’re going to want to give up (many times). Then find enthusiasm aging. And give up.
You’ll be told you’re an idiot. And lose friends. Question yourself daily. And maybe have the odd good moment, only to be followed by more crap.

It is going to be a hard, often lonely, slog.

I know this:

I’m living it.

I’m not successful. Not the success I’m have in mind. But I want to me. I will me. I’m working hard for it. And if I don’t get it I’ll die trying.

Until then I work every day for it. Not 80 hour weeks – not anymore. That is, not wasted 80 hour grinds.
I’m still “working” every minute I’m awake, but I’ve learnt to re-focus some of that energy to other things: Learning. Thinking. Walking. Rest. Re-evaluation.

True success isn’t the founders of Facebook, Google or Tesla. They got lucky. Yes, the did some work, but not what the work everyone else has to do.

For the average person success is a lot a vision and a lot of guts, the ability to adapt, and the fortune to positions themselves to strike when opportunity is right.

And a hell of a lot of hard work and failure leading up to it.

I’ll be an overnight success some day…. 20-something years in the making.

Software development “Team Leads” do not write code.

(Except in small business.)

Any job that asks for a “lead” and expects them to write code is really asking for a “senior developer” while paying lip service to “managing the team as a leader”.

True team leads don’t have time to write code, because they are:

• Meeting with the business
• Planning
• Designing
• Reviewing
• HR-ing
• Thinking
• Learning

Multitasking is not doing multiple things at the same time.

It’s doing one thing you can use multiple times.

GUI

Traditionally it’s known as “Graphical User Interface”.

I like to think of it as “Great User Interaction“.